Paisley’s story

I want to share my story to highlight the risks that pre-eclampsia also has on the unborn baby.

What happened to my son as a result of it has traumatised me to the point I have PTSD and no longer want anymore children.

I can’t remember what week I was when I was diagnosed, but I know that my birthing plan hadn’t been made yet. I had attended an appointment with my midwife and shared with her that I had been getting really bad headaches and I had all of sudden become more swollen. She asked if I could provide a urine sample and almost as soon as the little stick touched my urine, it revealed that protein had been found. I knew protein in the urine meant pre-eclampsia. I have experienced a lot of trauma in my life, so despite the fact I was terrified, it didn’t show.

Within a matter of days, I found out that the last two months or so of my pregnancy would be me going in and out of day care to have my blood pressure checked and to make sure my son was ok. I had a anterior placenta, so the monitoring of his movements was a relief for me. I was supposed to be there every two days, but I was constantly in and out of triage as my symptoms would worsen. I had joked with one of the midwives that I should pitch a tent outside as it would save me money on taxi fares.

For a while, it was just protein in my urine, headaches and swelling that let everyone know I had pre-eclampsia, but what they didn’t tell me was that they were just waiting for my blood pressure to react. Then it did. I was put on blood pressure tablet and had a growth scan booked to make sure everything with my son was ok. Even though they continued to check to see if he was ok, no one told me the risks posed on him.

I ended up having three growth scans. The first showed his umbilical cord was finding it difficult to pump blood to him. The second showed improvement. When I went for the third, at 36 weeks, I knew I wasn’t going home. I recognised the sound of his umbilical cord pumping too hard to try and give him blood. When I went to meet with the consultant after the scan, she told me my son would arrive that day or the next. Three hours later he was here and an hour or so after the emergency c-section, he was rushed to NICU and was there for three weeks before being moved to high dependency, then allowed home.

Not only had he struggled to get blood, he also struggled to get food and was born hypoglycemic. We were told that the blood sugar levels usually adjust once the baby is fed milk, but his didn’t. He was then diagnosed with hyperinsulinism and no one knew if it was transient or persistent. If it is transient, then it was the stress he experienced as a result of not getting enough blood, food and oxygen due to my pre-eclampsia that caused it. There was also speculation that the blood pressure tablets also played a role. As his blood sugar levels are now good, it is suspected that it was transient.

We only hear about how it affects the mum. We aren’t told how it affects our unborn babies other than it can be life-threatening for them too. Mum’s being told what could happen to their baby can help prepare us and can lessen the blow it has on us when our baby is faced with the repercussions. We are already vulnerable once we hit the postpartum stage and finding out our body is the reason our baby is struggling and could potentially have life long medical issues, is a very hard blow and leads to trauma.

Knowing that my son’s life was at risk and later his life and development were at risk fills me guilt and fear that if I have another pregnancy, the baby wouldn’t be as lucky as my son. I don’t want to risk it and have told my fiance that I won’t have another pregnancy.